“Cynicism is not a neutral position — and although it asks almost nothing of us, it is highly infectious and unbelievably destructive. In my view, it is the most common and easy of evils.
I know this because much of my early life was spent holding the world and the people in it in contempt. It was a position both seductive and indulgent. The truth is, I was young and had no idea what was coming down the line. I lacked the knowledge, the foresight, the self-awareness. I just didn’t know. It took a devastation to teach me the preciousness of life and the essential goodness of people. It took a devastation to reveal the precariousness of the world, of its very soul, to understand that it was crying out for help. …
Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like, Valerio, such as reading to your little boy, or showing him a thing you love, or singing him a song, or putting on his shoes, keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that it is so.”
Nick Cave, from his “Red Hand Files” newsletter, which you should sign up for right away
Cave’s training in dance choreography and textile art inspired him to create Soundsuits, named after the noises they emitt when in motion.
Cave created the first Soundsuit in response to the brutal beating of Rodney King by police officers in Los Angeles in 1991. Soundsuits protect their human content obstructing bias on the basis of race, gender, and class.
“We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at all. Because the worth of the idea never becomes apparent until you do it. Sometimes this idea can be the smallest thing in the world, a little flame that you hunch over and cup with your hand, and pray will not be extinguished by all the storm that howls about it. If you could hold onto that flame, great things could construct around it, that are massive and powerful and world changing, all held up by the tiniest of ideas.”
I constructed a strange mask A strange mask From the pieces of me
I reached into the black sky I dug into the brown earth And found a piece And found a piece of me
I stretched into the yellow sun And dived into the roaring sea And found a piece And found a piece of me
I I I was remade, o lord I was remade, o lord I was no longer me I was the world The world entire I was remade, o lord I was remadе, o lord I was no longer me
I went down I wеnt down To the quarantined city And found And found a piece of me
I went down I went down and made a new A new and foreign body And found When I looked into the river It was no longer me
I I I was remade, o lord I was remade, o lord I was no longer me I was the world The world entire I was remade, o lord I was remade, o lord I was no longer me I was the world The world entire
I went down I went down To the quarantined city And found And found a piece of me
I went down I went down and made a new A new and foreign body And found when I looked into the river It was no longer me
I went down I went down and made a new A new and foreign body And found When I saw the crystal river I was no longer me
I said, “Do you know where the wild roses grow So sweet and scarlet and free?” On the second day he came with a single red rose Said: “Will you give me your loss and your sorrow” I nodded my head, as I lay on the bed He said, “If I show you the roses, will you follow?”
Dress is vintage. Bag is from Bloodmilk Exquisite Corpse
Director - Will Sharpe, Cinematography - Erik Wilson
“I don’t make the world beautiful, Louis. The world is beautiful, and you’ve helped me to see that, too. Just remember - however hard things get, however much you feel like you’re struggling, the world is full of beauty. And it’s up to you to capture it, Louis. To look and to share it with as many people as you can. You are a prism through which that beam of life refracts.”
I don’t believe in an interventionist God But I know, darling, that you do But if I did I would kneel down and ask him Not to intervene when it came to you Not to touch a hair on your head To leave you as you are And if He felt He had to direct you Then direct you into my arms
Into my arms, O Lord Into my arms, O Lord Into my arms, O Lord Into my arms
And I don’t believe in the existence of angels But looking at you I wonder if that’s true But if I did I would summon them together And ask them to watch over you To each burn a candle for you To make bright and clear your path And to walk, like Christ, in grace and love And guide you into my arms
Into my arms, O Lord Into my arms, O Lord Into my arms, O Lord Into my arms
And I believe in Love And I know that you do too And I believe in some kind of path That we can walk down, me and you So keep your candles burning And make her journey bright and pure That she will keep returning Always and evermore
Into my arms, O Lord Into my arms, O Lord Into my arms, O Lord Into my arms
I saw Nick Cave last night and recorded this (among others). The vision is not much, but the sound is surprisingly good. It’s not perfect. In fact he misses the middle verse, and at the end, I believe, apologises to his band for doing so. But the man is a genius. There’s rarely catchy ‘hooks’ or verse/chorus/verse/chorus arrangements. His music is based on the beauty of eloquently worded prose and phenomenal musicianship. I feel completely privileged to have been able to see him perform his art live.
From the first day I saw her I knew she was the one She stared in my eyes and smiled For her lips were the colour of the roses That grew down the river, all bloody and wild
NICK CAVE + KYLIE MINOGUE - ‘WHERE THE WILD ROSES GROW’
Virgin, 1995
Um dueto que chegou do outro lado do mundo. Literalmente. Juntando os australianos Nick Cave e Kylie Minogue, que pareciam senhores de destinos que nunca se poderiam cruzar. Mas cruzaram. E tudo aconteceu em 1995, naquele que foi o single de apresentação de 'Murder Ballads’ e que agradou a tudo e todos. Foi o maior êxito da discografia de Nick Cave e deu outra credibilidade à cantora. Valeu a pena, está visto. E é uma bela canção.
A rather unexpected collaboration and a beautiful duet. It became Nick Cave’s biggest hid and gave people an opportunity to look to Kylie in a different way.
